Natural Counting Board

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Natural Wooden Counting Board

This Montessori inspired resource is the perfect tool to help preschool aged children build their emerging mathematical knowledge through play.

This wooden counting board for numbers 1 through 10 is a teaching and learning resource that will help children develop their early number sense for numbers.

Children will learn to recognise the numbers symbols and then match the corresponding number of balls by popping the coloured wooden balls into the smooth grooves.

This beautiful wooden board is engraved with the numerical symbols at the top of the column with corresponding grooves or dimples below. The engraved numbers that can also be traced with an inquisitive finger or a stylus. If you don't have a stylus handy you could just use a stick or wooden skewer from the kitchen to further extend their emerging concepts of numbers and counting.

This product is perfect for the home environment or early childhood care and education services from family day care through to the more formal settings of preschool or even for students in the foundation stages of school. Educators and parents from all walks of life will find this teaching tool a most useful addition to their teaching and learning or home environments. This is a visually beautiful product and each board is unique just as every piece of wood is unique.

This board allows children an opportunity explore numbers and develop a strong understanding of the concepts of counting, one to one correspondence and the seriation of numbers 1-10 while deeply engaged in play.

Features:

made from wood, so it is beautiful as well as a rich sensory experience for children. There are also no plastics to worry about.

made from plantation timber so it's not only a renewable resource, it's good for our environment.

Specifications:

measures: 10 x 35 x 35 cm

weight: TBD

Includes a set of 55 wooden coloured balls

non-toxic varnish so it's safe for children

Please Note: Not suitable for children aged 36 months and under. Please keep in mind these wooden balls can certainly pose a choking hazard for young children so it is recommend using the balls with children only over the age of 36 months, and always with supervision when young children are around.

How to Enrich Children's Play using the Montessori-Inspired Natural Counting Board

Over time, children become used to a challenge, they habituate and therefore lose interest. Children still need to build skills and learn though, so to support this learning you can extend and enrich this teaching tool in a number of ways.

Instead of using the balls, you could use other loose parts such as large beads, buttons, glass pebbles, felt balls, crystals, marbles, dried beans and peas from the kitchen pantry.

You extend the play and use natural found and collected objects such as pebbles, small leaves or possibly even flower petals, gumnuts, casuarina seed pods …

You could purchase our natural sorting set and use them to hold the wooden balls and encourage the children to use the bamboo tongs to pick up the balls and place them in their corresponding grooves. This will add a whole new level of hand-eye coordination and challenge children to further develop their fine motor skills and dexterity. Children are often up for a challenge once they have achieved success in learning skills.

You can store the wooden balls in a sealed repurposed glass jar on a shelf or in a calico bag, or small woven basket.

You could also display the board using a book stand so that encourages children to see the board and then they in turn will be more included to choose it to play with.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Are the wooden balls included?

Yes, the wooden balls are included. There are 55 balls included in your set. You could also use marbles, felt balls, dried beans and peas from your pantry, and other loose parts that you may have around your home to extend on this learning resource.

How can I introduce this to my child/students?

You could set this board on a table with either a glass jar of the wooden balls, or a beautiful wooden bowl. Place the board onto a placemat such as the ones we've used in our photographs. This sets a scene that is far more inviting than simply putting the board onto a table.

This board could even be set up at a table with two settings so that two children can work together, or if you have two boards, again, placing them side by side, perhaps with a shared bowl of wooden balls in the middle to encourage engagement and collaboration.

You can set a challenge by drawing the child's attention to the product. Notice the number symbols, “Oh look, I see the number three, you're three years old!” and use this or a similar statement as an icebreaker. Avoid quizzing or trying to draw out information for the child.

The trick is using teaching strategies that are subtle and encourage children to engage, rather than trying to demand knowledge from them. “I wonder how many balls we can fit here?” is another gentle challenge that will encourage play. It really should't take much – it's such a beautiful product that inspires play. I know as I was setting up the photos for the website I enjoyed myself! I have no doubt that children will as well.

Is this suitable for children under three years old?

No, due to the loose parts and the size of the balls, this set with the balls is not suitable for use with children under the age of three. You could however use it without the balls under supervision and use it as a tool to count the grooves in the wood, and also to trace the numerical symbols.

This stunning wooden Montessori inspired counting board is the perfect addition to your treasure trove of learning tools and teaching aides. It doesnt matter if you're working with children in a homeschool environment, a family day care setting or a more formal early childhood and education care setting. This is a solid resource that will last for years to come. It can be extended upon so that children will engage for endless hours building a strong foundational knowledge of mathematics and numeracy. Add this beautiful product to your resource collection today.

THESE ITEMS ARE PRE-ORDERED 12/02/19 ... So there may be a slight delay with shipping.